https://kabbalahmedia.info/en/lessons/cu/55c2z2jE

The transcript has been transcribed and edited from English simultaneous interpretation, thus there may be potential semantic inaccuracies within it.

Daily Lesson (Afternoon) December 5, 2024.                                                                      

Part 1: Rabash. “The Meal of a Wicked One”, Record 911.

Reader: Hello, we are reading from the writings of Rabash, Article 911, “The Meal of a Wicked One”. Study materials can be found online, on SvivaTova and the Arvut systems. “The Meal of a Wicked One”, Rabash, 911. 

The Meal of a Wicked One, Article 911.

Reading: (00:37) Our sages said, “Why did that generation have to be destroyed?” One said, “Because they bowed to idols,” and one said, “Because they enjoyed the meal of that wicked one.”

We should ask why they did not say “Because they ate from the meal of that wicked one,” but rather that they “enjoyed.” There are two discernments in the work: 1) Mind, which is bowing to idols. An “idol” means that one has some basis for the work. This is called “an idol.” Man should work in faith, as it is written, “For you did not see any image,” for an image and a similitude are bases upon which one can determine that he works for this, meaning he establishes his work on this basis, and this is the support. Conversely, when he has no support, he falls from his work. 2) Enjoying the meal of that wicked implies the heart, if a person enjoys his wicked one enjoying himself. He must eat and drink because otherwise he will not be able to live, but he must not enjoy the meal that his will to receive is doing.

For this reason, their work was compulsory, as our sages said, “observed and received,” thus far by force; henceforth willingly, where by being rewarded with repentance from love, they were rewarded with their work being of their own volition.

We therefore see that even when one is at the very bottom, in the worst possible state, when one has flawed both discernments, still, afterward, they were rewarded with “observed and received,” where what was compulsory has later become willingly. This is the meaning of the Megillah [scroll] of Ester: They are two opposites, where during the concealment, there is coercion, and during the disclosure, it is a time of goodwill.

M. Laitman: Questions?

Question (Women MAK): (04:20) What is the meal of the wicked? 

M. Laitman: Those that enjoy the meal itself, enjoy the meal itself, and not that they want to please the Creator through the meal. 

Student: What is the meal of the righteous? 

M. Laitman: It's those that don't enjoy the meal itself, but thanks to the meal they can please the Creator. 

Student: How do we correctly prepare ourselves for the King's meal, to bring the whole world to it? 

M. Laitman: We need to understand what the meal of final correction is, and through this we'll explain it to the world that they, everyone that lives in the world, will want to take part in such a meal. 

Question (Women MAK): (05:50) Many ladies and one man are gathering. Can we read the Zohar in this way altogether? 

M. Laitman: It's allowed.

Question (Women MAK 98): (06:10) Should we not enjoy the meal of the wicked? How do we do this in the Ten? How does it happen there? Realistically, in our Ten, can we not enjoy the meal of the wicked? 

M. Laitman: If the goal of the meal is to please the Creator, then it will be a correct meal.

Student: Can we somehow examine this? How do we check if this is the correct meal or not? 

M. Laitman: If you tune yourselves correctly, you'll begin to feel straight away what kind of pleasure you get from the meal.

Question (Turkiye 2): (07:30) How do I convince my mind and intellect to reach full faith? I am in a constant state of war, and I'm afraid that one day I'll lose my strength.

M. Laitman: The truth is that a man always needs to be at war against his evil inclination and advance in order to always strive towards the good inclination. And because he is engaged with a good inclination, he turns to the Creator and passes on pleasure to Him.

Question (Women MAK 43): (08:52) If the light and the vessel are in a state of Zivug, and they reach full equivalence, or the giver and bestower disappear, who is the one that perceives that act of unity? It could be in that full state of adhesion creation itself disappears, because there's no longer a difference between the source and the vessel. And if it is so, what is my place as the creation in the system? And is there a way that we can preserve in some way the light in the vessel? 

M. Laitman: Someone gives, someone receives, otherwise there can be no connection. So, if we are receiving creation from the start, the main thing in us is to build what we receive for. We receive in order to please the Creator, and then we have no problem. For example, like in a small child, if he eats what his mother gives him and by this he gives her pleasure even though he also is pleased, but here he adds the intention to this. 

Student: Another question. If I understand correctly, the vessel, the recognition of my I will change, and then the Kli understands that all the pleasure belongs to the Creator, and He Himself just reflects that light and strengthens it and returns it back?

M. Laitman: Okay, let it be like this. 

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (11:23) If you could explain from the intellect, what is that shade and how is it connected to the meal of the wicked? 

M. Laitman: Mind and heart are two possibilities for enjoying the meal, and that's why we have to understand how we enjoy it. 

Student: And what is that multitude that he is talking about there? 

M. Laitman: He writes that if a man has a foundation for the work, then it's called a Tzelem, an image, and a man needs to work in the quality of faith, about which it is said that he didn't see any image. When the image, picture, then he decides what he works for. 

Student: Meaning we have this common work of the mind and the heart, where the mind will also bring me something towards spirituality, that there is this cooperation between them? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (13:18) Is the meal here the possibility to overcome something corporeal in order to make place? I'm trying to feel if that's correct at all. What I'm saying as if the intention needs to be overcome even more there because there is a meal or is it something in general? 

M. Laitman: No, a meal is reception of pleasure.

Student: We can get pleasure from seeing, from hearing, from smell, meaning the senses need to help us to overcome? They don't need to be obstacles?

M. Laitman: Yes, correct.

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (14:10) He talks here about the discernment of mind and heart, and he explains that in the mind, what we're offering right now, that basically it's forbidden for a person to have any egoistic support for his work. If so, where is he getting his support? From where can we get support? 

M. Laitman: That by revealing the desire to please the Creator, and he passes on his desire from the meal to the Creator. And the Creator receives it. 

Question (Petah Tikva Center): (15:18) In the second paragraph he says, discernment of mind, not the discernment of the heart. Number two, enjoying the meal of the wicked implies the heart. If a person enjoys his wicked one, enjoying himself, he must eat and drink because otherwise he will not be able to live, but he must not enjoy the meal that his will to receive is doing. How do I take control over these enjoyments and abstain from them, disconnect from them? 

M. Laitman: A man, by receiving a meal, finds himself this way, but with the intention that he needs to receive, otherwise he won't be alive. He doesn't want to get pleasure from the meal itself. 

Student: Why? 

M. Laitman: Because otherwise he will be called a receiver. 

Student: And what does he do with his wickedness which he enjoys? 

M. Laitman: He doesn't fill it.

Student: And where does he get the strength to control them? 

M. Laitman: He receives the force from who? He doesn't want to enjoy the meal, but he receives this meal as a force, forcefully. 

Student: The meal is the parable for all of the enjoyments of our life? So, what gives a person this intensity as if he rises above this world with all of its pleasures and fulfillments and the nonsense which pulls him into the swamp? How does a person succeed in rising above? What gives him strength? 

M. Laitman: That way he gets closer to the Creator. 

Question (Women Spain): (19:23) How do we express these two opposites of the work by coercion and then the work that’s willing in the life of the Ten? 

M. Laitman: The work in desire is a result of the feeling of pleasure and wants to enjoy and in its desire wants to also please the Creator. The work by force is that he doesn't want to receive this meal from the Creator, and this is how he advances until he comes to a state where he doesn't receive.

Question (Women MAK): (20:58) Through what merits can he bring the Creator into his life?

M. Laitman: This is only through work on intention. 

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (21:28) Regarding that state when he is when he is hit until he wants to do it willingly and faith above reason. Is it already when he can distinguish between the righteous and the wicked and for that to always be happy? 

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (22:05) How is the connection between the Esther scroll and the meal of the wicked? 

M. Laitman: We're not studying this now.

Question (Kyiv): (22:20) How does a Kabbalist work with the pleasure that comes to him in order to give to the Creator from it? 

M. Laitman: First of all, he performs a restriction, and then he makes a screen to receive full bestowal, and so he passes on all of the pleasure he receives to the Creator. 

Student: How do I pass all the pleasure that I'm feeling to the Creator since I'm the one that's feeling it right now? How do I pass the things that I enjoy out of myself to Him? 

M. Laitman: Only according to your desire, what you receive now in order to please him. 

Question (Women MAK 123): (24:03) We often follow our instincts regarding our nature and only later we discover that something is off. If I can't change anything, I ask the Creator to correct me. How do we learn not to follow our nature blindly? 

M. Laitman: For this we need to understand what the Creator demands from us and how we can please Him, satisfy Him. Through which of our actions we thank the Creator and then everything will be good. 

Student: Another question. There is a materialistic world and a higher world.

The higher world feels right next to the friends. How do we learn to feel the upper world more tangibly within ourselves and not somewhere nearby? 

M. Laitman: Try to feel it, and then you'll feel that you're gradually getting closer to him.

Question (Women Hadera 2): (25:58) I'm sorry if maybe I understood incorrectly, but I thought that this is taken from the sentence as the matter of one who wants coercion, so he says, I want. It starts from coercion until I don't have a desire until I have a desire. Can we say so? 

M. Laitman: This speaks of the vessels of when a man wants to perform actions of bestowal.

Question (Women Nahariya): (26:56) What's obligating that generation? 

M. Laitman: It can't come out for reception.

Question (Women MAK 30): (27:17) There is this question that we're egoists. We have the egoistic inclination, but in order to reach love of the Creator, we cannot do so if we don't have the love towards a child, towards a family, towards a profession. We can all illuminate this, and we can all direct this to the Creator and please the Creator by showing Him that we know how to love our Ten in this whole world.

M. Laitman: This won't be bestowal to the Creator. 

Student: Somehow then we need to cancel ourselves even in any case, even love towards a child? 

M. Laitman: I'm not saying cancel love for a child, but don't think that through cancelling your egotistical desire you can please the Creator. He doesn't need this at all.

Student: So, when we feel something we can dedicate it to the Creator and through that we can please the Creator with our unity, with our love towards the friends. We need to please the Creator with that, if we read something together or feel something good together.

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Turkiye 8): (29:02) How does one come to a clear decision not to enjoy the wicked's meal, because in the study there's always ups and downs?

M. Laitman: He wants to clarify a state through ascents and descents when he is in the direction of bestowal to the Creator.

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (29:43) It turns out that we always need to overcome our desires. We don't want to go to the group, to a lesson, etc. And this overcoming will always be bestowal in the same way to act in life, not to pay attention to our appetite but to think that we are sitting down at the meal in order to please the Creator.

M. Laitman: Yes, we need to do it with such thoughts and intentions. 

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (30:58) So I made a decision that from this moment onwards all the actions will be for the sake of the Creator, but each time when I forget or I get distracted or I think that I am more important for myself than the Creator's desire, then I enter into the meal of the wicked. Is that correct? 

M. Laitman: Okay, let it be so. This will all get corrected.

Question (Women Petah Tikva 33): (31:46) Regarding bestowing to the Creator the pleasure that we receive, and we want to share it with the Creator. When I try to do that, what turns out is just this one big gratitude to the Creator. Is this feeling of gratitude enough? Or is that not bestowed at all? 

M. Laitman: In the meantime, it's enough. Think about this all the time and then this will develop towards newer states.

Student: Another question. My intention to bestow to the Creator needs to always be before the action or it could be that after there is pleasure, I want to bestow to Him out of this pleasure. Do I need to think before the action that I want to bestow to the Creator or there could also be a state where I feel pleasure already and I want to pass this feeling to Him out of that feeling already? 

M. Laitman: Yes, yes, that's enough. In the meantime, that's enough. 

Question (Women Moscow 5): (33:08) I hear the questions from our great friends, and I feel to what extent I am distant from all of these thoughts, and I think what's better? To contemplate these things and get confused or to place oneself under the light and the unity and to read and allow the light to correct me? Or do I need to dig into it and go into all these things?

M. Laitman: Gradually, this will get untangled. 

Student: We shouldn't clarify what's important and what's not important? Whatever we can do we should in the Ten. Right? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women MAK 137): (34:02) While studying the sources, there is some feeling of hope for correction. Can we say that this feeling happens through the feeling of the light of correction that awaits us ahead? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Ukraine 2): (34:30) A man forgets to build his intention. What does this memory depend on? How can I strengthen it? 

M. Laitman: To constantly hold yourself in the direction of the Creator. 

Student: So you forget and you ask not to forget and move forward like this, yes? And this way to move forward?

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (35:32) I remember you said that the work needs to be minimal but on the subject of the meal of the wicked ones, after many years on the path, we delve into some practical developments, some study.

This is not some minimal external effort. Is this the meal of the wicked ones? What to do with this advancement? It's not spiritual advancement but it elevates people. We have many friends that become professionals, not just the minimum.

M. Laitman: I don't see that it's forbidden. Simply, a person needs to divide his life between spiritual and corporeal to what's obligatory, to what's possible, and he will be in all the parts of life. 

Student: If you dedicate a lot of time to the corporeal is this the meal of the wicked ones? 

M. Laitman: No.

Student: When we build an intention for bestowal to the Creator, this starts from the thought that I want to give to the Creator? And I hope that this will come to a feeling at some point. 

M. Laitman: No, that's not a must.

Student: Why specifically the heart? I want to just give pleasure. I don't want it just to be in the mind. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (37:32) It says that if a person has nothing to lean on, he falls. So, how do we not fall out of work when we have nothing to build on? 

M. Laitman: The work comes out of a person's feeling. That's it.

Student: And in it he remains without work. What does he do when he doesn't have anything to lean on? 

M. Laitman: How he does it, pray.

Question (Women Spain): (38:36) What influence is the result of a meal gratitude? 

M. Laitman: Yes, it's gratitude.

Student: Usually when people eat, we think about the one who prepared the meal, put it on the table. Is this bestowal to the Creator if we think about Him? 

M. Laitman: Not bestowal. 

Question (Women Brazil): (39:32) At the end of the article, he speaks of the scroll of Esther. During the concealment, there is coercion, and during the disclosure, it is a time of goodwill. Can we ascend during the concealment to see this duality that exists in Malchut and choose the path of faith? 

M. Laitman: We need to try to be connected to the Creator both in bestowal and reception and to thank Him for leading us. 

Question (Hadera 1): (40:55) We learn a lot about the importance of the prayer, and he speaks of this. There is an understanding of this, but it's still a difficulty that prevents a man from praying in a desirable way. What is the main reason? 

M. Laitman: That a person does not see the true reason and the true disturbance? 

Question (Hadera 1): (41:35) Usually, we don't know what we feel and hear the difference between how we are and our true state. This is called a lie until we reveal the truth? 

M. Laitman: Let it accumulate, and afterwards we'll see.

Student: And is this revelation of the truth? Is it a lie in the meantime? 

M. Laitman: Afterwards we'll see. 

Question (Women Petah Tikva 8): (42:10) I heard you say that a man does not want to receive pleasure in the meal. Is this something we have to do with all the pleasure, not want to receive it? This creates some sadness in a person. He knows he won't enjoy, so I won't do anything. I won't eat. What should be my pleasure when we begin to restrict our desires? 

M. Laitman: By this I become similar to the Creator. 

Student: Okay, I understand that's in the mind, but in the feeling? 

M. Laitman: That as well. 

Student: So, at this phase when you feel you won't receive pleasure, you shouldn't be sad, you should continue? 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: And what happens then? 

M. Laitman: Try and see. 

Question (Petah Tikva 20): (43:32) How do we apply this article practically? When we do this in the Ten, we have a meal, we have some sequence of actions, we prepare, we sing a melody. How do we make sure it's not a meal of the wicked ones? 

M. Laitman: What does the meal of the wicked talk about? 

Student: In the article it says we need to clarify whether it's a meal of the wicked ones or the righteous ones. 

M. Laitman: Read it there and scrutinize it; clarify it.

Question (Asia): (44:27) The Kli is striving for what is called light, bestowal. It builds us that we acquire this from our environment and builds in us the demand for correction? 

M. Laitman: Yes, of course, only from that. 

Question (Women MAK 25): (44:55) How does what we call an effort become what is called a desire. Does the Creator do this in us? 

M. Laitman: Of course, the Creator. Who else? 

Student: How does He respond? Does He respond to the sum of our efforts? 

M. Laitman: That's not our business. 

Question (Women Ukraine 2): (45:33) You said many times about gratitude. I'm in such a state that I want to thank Him, but I just become dumb and silent and it's like I'm stuck at a wall. What do I do? 

M. Laitman: Write to the Creator. 

Student: Another question. We have another article, the wicked ones are those that cannot say that there is an order of good that does good. What is a wicked one? 

M. Laitman: That's called a wicked who doesn't feel that he lives in a world in which the Creator acts, Who created everything so that a person will come closer to the Creator. 

Question (Women MAK 23): (46:51) When we gather for a meal we have an intention for unity. Is this called a meal for the soul? Is this what we need to do?

M. Laitman: Yes. 

Question (Women MAK 97): (48:02) Using corporal pleasures is possible when you don't feel it, but the pleasure from the spiritual is so big that I don't know how to refuse it, how to perform a restriction on the spiritual so it wouldn't be for oneself, but for the Creator. 

M. Laitman: We learned about this thousands of times, how to refuse pleasures for oneself and how to direct them only in the direction of the Creator. The way I said it, in that order you do it as well.

Question (Women Kyiv 7): (49:09) What needs to be built in the middle line to hold onto the so-called balance you have to think only about giving. 

M. Laitman: When you think only about bestowal.       

Question (Women Turkiye 7): (49:50) How do we make it so the mind and the heart want for us to feel, so it's so important to us even if I get external thoughts and it doesn't keep me away from the goal. 

M. Laitman: To always be in it and to think about it, to turn to the Creator and to praise Him for Him to change me, to change my life, that I'll feel that the main thing is to bestow contentment on Him and not to demand anything in return. 

Question (Women Petah Tikva 33): (50:48) I heard that what gets in the way of a man's ability to pray correctly is the true disturbance. He doesn't see the true reason, the true disturbance, obstacle, that's why he can't pray. How do we detect the true obstacle to come to the correct prayer?

M. Laitman: There is no true reason which can disconnect us from the Creator, from turning to Him, from praying to Him. There is no true reason for that.

Student: So, I didn't understand correctly. The question was what gets in the way of a person's ability to pray correctly is the main reason. 

M. Laitman: Yes.

Student: Then a man doesn't see this true reason. Should we seek the true obstacle and true reason? 

M. Laitman: Yes. Ask the Creator all the time to reveal to us what is the true reason that we cannot reveal Him and connect to Him with all of our forces. 

Student: How do we turn work by force into work by goodwill in the Ten? 

M. Laitman: Through the thought that I always want to be in that thought and in that desire, and I do not want to separate from it. So, gradually, I reach a state where I demand from the Creator nothing else besides that 

Question (Women MAK 25): (53:16) A meal is a spiritual action at the time of reception of reflected light. How do we calculate the amount of reflected light that’s necessary for existence? 

M. Laitman: There is no such measure. There isn't. The light of Hassidim is what we need. That's it.

Question (Women Moscow 6): (53:57) You said that we should connect to the Creator in every possible way. How does a person do this? 

M. Laitman: He demands of the Creator such a connection that he wouldn't be able to separate from the Creator at all.

Question (Women Kavkaz 1): (54:41) I clarify according to the desire that He wants, and then I end up in a place where I choose the clothing. It's like I don't need this desire unless it's a reason to rise in the prayer. So, I want to ask the opposite way. Can I choose whether it needs to be clothed? I hold on so it's not clothed? 

M. Laitman: Think some more until the next lesson.

Question (Women Hebrew 2): (55:44) Who prepares a meal, us or the Creator? 

M. Laitman: When we reach the meal, we'll see. 

Student: What's with the meal of the whale? 

M. Laitman: The Creator prepares.

Question (Women French): (56:25) When we're in a meal, we can pass on the love of the Creator to the friends, and we can feel it together? 

M. Laitman: Yes. That too. 

Student: But we feel we are lacking some friends that have to join the meal?

M. Laitman: Yes, that as well.

Student: How do we keep the Hissaron and the joy for the friends that join?

Question (Women Armenia): (57:35) I’m not sure whether I can enjoy the meal or I shouldn’t enjoy the meal. We’re in a circle of friends who prepare a meal, and we thank the Creator for gathering us together and the food is always very tasty. Should we get pleasure from the meal or not? 

M. Laitman: You must enjoy. 

Question (Turkiye 7): (58:29) What is the return when the man attracts judgments? First of all, I feel bad about myself. I don't want to feel the Creator because there is shame. A man doesn't want to see himself like this. What does he need to do? He needs to perform a concealment. I don't want to see him, right? And then a man feels worse, more bad qualities, and he cannot perform a concealment on the Creator. So, what does he need to do? The judgments are fire. What is it for? To cancel all the possible qualities. But first of all, I need to see what they are and return? I need to expect the judgments. 

M. Laitman: Yes, you said everything correctly. 

We don't have any more time. I wish you all the best until tomorrow.

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